The detection of specified antigens and/or their specific binding partners, antibodies, has in recent years become of utmost importance in both the research and clinical environment. The detection of antigens and antibodies can often be related to various disease states and consequently is of extreme usefulness in diagnosis as well as gaining basic understandings concerning the genesis of disease including cancer as well as the effectiveness of therapies therefor.
Consequently, improved methods for detecting antigens found in aqueous samples, i.e. soluble antigens, as well as antigens found on the surface of tissues and cells are constantly sought. Typically, immunoassay methods may be characterized by their speed/facility of employment and by their sensitivity.
It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide new and novel methods which are susceptible to use in automated and semi-automated instruments. It is another object to provide new immunoassay methods having a desirably high level of sensitivity to the antigens to be detected. It is a still further object to provide methods which incorporate a noise reduction technique for the generation of signals having superior signal-to-noise ratios.